The Aftermath
by fangirltothecore
Summary: This story takes place after the end of Book 1, but erases the scene in which Korra and Mako kiss. (I thought it was rushed and that it wouldn't have happened had the writers known they had 3 more seasons) This story focuses on how the Equalist cause was based in legitimate nonbender mistreatment, and Tahno is a main char. There will be eventual Tahorra and involved plot!


Korra flings herself into her chair, whipping at the sweat coating her forehead and letting out a long sigh.

"That's the last of them. All five hundred and seventy- seven benders who filed to have me restore their bending."

Mako looks up from the book in his lap, smirking at her exhaustion. "Five hundred and seventy-seven, huh? And how many of those were nonbenders hoping for a miracle?"

"Twelve," Korra replies with a laugh, massaging her temples. "You should have seen their faces when I took one look at them and sent them away."

"Angry, I assume? Or just embarrassed?"

"Angry," Korra's smile fades as her eyes harden.

Mako groans, stretching out on the couch. "Amon's death didn't fix everything, did it?"

"Not even close," Korra growls, getting up and pacing in the newly rebuilt apartment above the bending arena. "I mean, we have benders scared of another Equalist uprising. They want to round up everyone sympathetic to the Equalist cause, which is, by the way, over half the city! Even the least radical nonbenders have harbored some resentment, and lately I can see why! I mean, even putting aside bender street gangs like the Triads, the only major sport in this town is off limits for them to play!"

"I know, I know," Mako sighs, "we're doing everything we can."

"Well 'everything' isn't enough, Mako," Korra growls. "The cops can't see everything, and I've been doing some research too. Did you know that over four fifths of the police force are benders? Not to mention only metalbenders are in the elite squads under Lin. That's just one more thing the nonbenders are rioting about! Things haven't gotten any better just because the Equalist movement is underground now!"

"I know, Korra, but what else can we do?" Mako closes his book, looking at her frankly. "Lin and I are looking for solutions, but we haven't found any way to calm the nonbenders. Benders are getting attacked on the streets now, you know? Their stores are being wrecked. And there's been a mass boycott of pro-bending games; the championships even got canceled out of a lack of attendance."

"We have to find a solution," Korra stomps her foot, glaring into space. "I'm the Avatar. I'm all about peace! But these people just aren't working with me!"

Mako leans back slowly, breathing in and out. "We'll figure it out eventually. In the meantime, you need to cool down. How about you go find Bo? He should be out at the noodle joint, still looking for his replacement team and trying to gather support to restart the probending tournament."

"I can't believe he's focusing on that at a time like this," Korra mutters, stalking out of the room.

"Maybe it's a good thing," Mako says evenly, Korra just catching his last words. "Maybe we need some people to focus on the small things."

_The small things_, Korra thinks scathingly as she stomps away from the bro-bending arena. _As if I have time to think small! There's a whole world to fix and about fifty-billion things that need doing, what with Tenzin distracted by his new son and the police busy putting down Equalist riots…_

Korra stops in the middle of the street, looking around at all the people moving around her, absorbing the sharp smell of gasoline and the bright lights of Republic city at night. Her heartbeat pounds away in her chest, too fast to think.

_ I need to think, I need to calm down… Just breathe, Korra, breathe…_

After a few moments of suspended time in the middle of the street, letting the bustling people push past her in hordes as she remains invisible under her bulky cloak, Korra takes her first step.

Aimlessly she wanders, filled with worry and getting more and more restless as nothing appears for her to take it out on.

"Ugh!" she screams, slamming her foot down into the cement. The street cracks with a sound like a rockslide. People pause and look at her, to which she quickly ducks her head and continues walking.

"Damn benders."

"Look at them, breaking things and not even stopping to fix them."

"This is why I hate people like them."

The whispers swirl around Korra, angry eyes peering at her from every corner as she tightens the cloak around herself, remorse welling up in an uneasy place in her stomach.

_I was just angry,_ she wants to tell them, _I didn't mean any harm!_

_But I left the crater all the same, didn't I? I never even thought to fix it, never have. Is there really any meaning behind what they say about benders? I've never thought twice about what I do with my bending, but how does it impact these people that can't fix things with a wave of their hand? Have I ever even thought about that?! Idiot._

She lets out another sigh, a headache beginning to develop. _Maybe just a drink in the White Turtle-Duck…_

Korra ducks into the quiet bar, a favorite spot of hers, and quietly orders a leechie-juice smoothie from the serious-looking bartender who merely nods in affirmation before walking off. She slumps against the counter, dully tracing the swirling pattern of the wood with one finger.

_Maybe I'll just sit here for the rest of the night… it's nice with no one asking me for anything, no one with questions I can't answer…_

"Well, if it isn't little miss uh-vatar."

Korra's eyes shoot open with dread at the sound of that sneering drawl, so hauntingly familiar, as if it came from a lifetime ago.

"Tahno!" she hisses, casting a quick look around the bar to see if anyone noticed his greeting. All the other occupants continue sipping their drinks and chatting quietly, not a one looking over in their direction. Korra lets out a sigh of relief before her anger comes back and she rounds back on Tahno.

Full well intending to give Tahno a telling off for startling her, the words die in her mouth when she actually looks at him for the first time.

He looks… well, he looks like Tahno again.

"What happened?" she asks incredulously, looking him up and down from a pair of black designer boots to his signature picture perfect hair swoosh. "The last time I saw you, you looked like you were about to keel over in a sewer somewhere."

Tahno flips his hair back arrogantly, his smirk turning sour. "I'll admit it was a low point for me. I even remember tolerating you, that's how I know I was really off my game."

"Oh, ha, ha, so funny, pretty boy," Korra mutters, putting her chin back on the counter. "Why are you here? Just come to gloat about how universally hated I am now? Or do you just enjoy watching the mayhem that goes on now at night."

Tahno sighs reprovingly, taking the seat at the bar next to her and ordering a drink. "Neither actually. Though I am surprised you haven't guessed the most obvious reason. What did you just finish doing today?"

"What did I do today," she laughs harshly, "well I'll have you know I returned the bending of all bloody five hundred and seventy… seven…" Korra trails off as she looks at Tahno's expectant smirk. With a moan, she smacks herself in the face.

"Of course. I didn't even give it a thought before, but you weren't on the list."

"No, I wasn't," Tahno agrees evenly. "Care to guess why?"

Korra narrows her eyes. Tahno's same annoyingly superior demeanor makes her want to punch him in the face hard enough that those perfectly eye-lined eyes might just get a little swollen.

"You enjoy torturing me in my free time and thought this would be just so much more _fun_?" Korra remarks sarcastically with a bitter grin of her own, taking a sip of the smoothie after the bar tender brings it over.

"Hmmm, a tempting idea, but no bullseye."

"Tahno," Korra grits her teeth, closing her eyes, "I honestly don't care about the details. You want your bending? Fine. I'm obligated as Avatar to give it back. You don't have to be one-up on me."

Tahno swirls his drink around in his hand, raising an eyebrow as Korra can't help but be distracted by the annoying sound of the ice clinking against the glass. Water drops from the side of the cup, splashing onto the counter, and Korra wonders if Tahno's eyes follow it the way hers do, if his mind is where she knows hers would be if she could no longer control that water droplet.

"No, no," he corrects her in a sing-song voice, "It's not my bending I want. I've actually decided to remain a nonbender after all."

Korra's hand slips and the smoothie glass crashes to the floor with a shatter. The store goes silent as the other bar occupants turn to stare. Korra blushes and mumbles an apology, getting down on her hands and knees to pick up the shards.

"You don't what?!" she hisses at Tahno, flicking her eyes up at him as she cleans up.

"I. Don't. Want. My. Bending," Tahno enunciates as he continues swirling the drink with maddening equanimity.

"But- I- I mean it's your bending! That's your life," she stutters out, eyebrows scrunched together in consternation. "How could you just… give that up? It's who you are!"

"Wrong again, uh-vatar," Tahno sighs. "I would have thought you of all people might have been more enlightened, o great bridge and queen of in-touch-with-my-spirit-and-mind, or whatever. You lost your bending, right? When I first lost mine I thought I was done with and my life was over. But stuff changed. Didn't you come to accept that you could still help people, even without your bending? That would be the only reason Avatar Aang would give it back, right?"

Korra stares at him blankly, her jaw dropped.

_I'm getting a lecture on morals. From Tahno. __**Tahno**__._

"Don't look at me with such a stupid face, uh-vatar," Tahno sighs, swinging back the last of his drink. "Geez, this is worst than I thought."

"Excuse you!" Korra whispers angrily, pushing her face up into Tahno's. "It's not as easy as that! My duties as Avatar require that I have bending! Learn the four elements, connect with the spirit world, that is my mandate, remember? And the Avatar is who I am, through and through, losing my bending really was losing myself! Aang gave me myself back, what's wrong with that?"

Tahno merely shakes his head, eyes twinkling wickedly as he slides his empty glass away from himself and pushes off his seat. He sets a uon on the counter and turns to leave, hair flowing perfectly, as per usual.

"Geez, uh-vatar, if bending is all there is to being the Avatar, then that seems like it would be ignoring about three fourths of these people you've sworn to protect. Seems pretty backwards even to me," he drawls, "and I've never been the guy with the morals. Ah well, I guess I'll tell them I tried, but the uh-vatar is too preoccupied with using bending to find the true meaning of the universe, or whatever shit it is you do. Too busy to actually listen."

"Listen to who, exactly?" Korra yells stiffly, stopping Tahno right as he pushes open the door. People are staring but Korra doesn't particularly care at the moment, intent upon Tahno as she is.

Tahno peeks back over his shoulder, a grin sliding into place as he looks at her with her hand outstretched towards him as if to physically stop him from leaving. She scowls, letting her hand fall to her side.

"Who wants me to listen?" she repeats again, something inside her chest starting to thrum as she sees those blue eyes of Tahno's begin to burn.

"Why don't you come with me and find out?" he laughs, pushing out into the cold city night.

Korra remains frozen, the door swinging back and forth, a cold wind raising goosebumps along her arms as her mind spins frantically. Should she go? It's Tahno, after all, not exactly the most trustworthy guy. But, everything that's been going on, and her failing in all her duties, and he didn't come to get his bending back after all, and honestly... those _eyes_.

"_Shit_," she curses under her breath, and then she's out of her seat, pushing past the doors and into a world that suddenly seems to have regained some of its unpredictability.


End file.
